IBM says hackers can hijack your online dating profiles and pretend to be you

More than 60% of dating mobile apps on Android are
vulnerable to cyber-attacks that can allow hackers
to hijack your
dating profile and impersonate you, according to a new IBM Security
study.

The weaknesses let strangers change your content and images,
communicate with other app users, and even leak private
information about you that's inadvertently stored on your
smartphone, IBM says.

The study doesn't cover 41 dating apps on Apple's competing iOS
system. By amazing coincidence, IBM
and Apple have a major business partnership — but we're
sure that has nothing to do with the quality of this survey! For
the record, IBM tells us it's not a platform issue, but a
developer one. So chances are there are the same issues on iOS
too.

Because apps used by people to find love use phone features such
as cameras, microphones, storage, GPS location services, and
billing information, it's not just your identity that could be
compromised.

IMB Security VP Caleb Barlow said in a statement that dating apps
give users a feeling of "trust that gives hackers the opportunity
to exploit vulnerabilities". Hackers aren't just getting into the
back end of the apps via software vulnerabilities, in other
words. They're also pretending to be daters and phishing for your
personal details, which they can use to reverse engineer your
login identity and passwords.

"Consumers need to be careful not to reveal too much personal
information on these sites as they look to build a relationship
with another user on these dating apps."

IBM's suggestion is for users to "be mysterious," which basically
means don't divulge too much personal information until you're
comfortable with the person your engaging with, and to check app
permissions and use only trusted WiFi networks.